Plan B for Illinois

Published: August 10, 2004

In the noble tradition of the Marquis de Lafayette, the Seven Samurai, Mighty Mouse and Obi-Wan Kenobi, Alan Keyes is leaving home to go to the aid of a pitiable band of outgunned, hopeless supplicants: the Illinois Republican Party.

The party had been stumbling for months to find someone, anyone, to oppose Barack Obama, a Democrat, in the race for the United States Senate. The Obama Express has been cannonballing to Washington, picking up speed after Mr. Obama's dazzling keynote speech at the Democratic convention. The Republicans opted to overlook minor defects - like the fact that Mr. Keyes lives in Maryland. After all, every other conceivable Republican candidate had either jumped the tracks or politely declined an invitation to be tied to them.

Weeks after losing their primary winner, Jack Ryan, over allegations stemming from his divorce, the Republicans have finally settled on Plan B: Mr. Keyes, a hard-core conservative who has carved out a career as a sort of professional unsuccessful candidate. He has never won office in four previous attempts, two each for president and the Senate.

Like Mr. Obama, Mr. Keyes is black, and the winner will be only the third African-American in the Senate since Reconstruction. But the race now seems likely to turn the Republicans' big tent into something more like the Big Top: Smell the rank hypocrisy! (Mr. Keyes accused Hillary Clinton of being a carpetbagger in her 2000 Senate race.) See the ideological acrobats! (The state Republican chairwoman, who accuses Mr. Obama of being far out of the mainstream, is a moderate who supports abortion rights. Mr. Keyes condemns it in practically every case as "murder in the womb.")

While this page expressed hope that Mr. Obama would have an opponent this fall, Mr. Keyes is not exactly what we had in mind. He did meet the party's minimal qualifications - he has a well-known name and is willing to show up. And he is a polished public speaker. But if the only challenge for Mr. Obama is to appear more reasonable than his opponent - who believes the federal income tax is unconstitutional - the bar will not be very high.